THE BENUE Local Government Election Petitions Tribunal, has fixed March 21 for ruling in a motion seeking a change in venue from Abuja to Makurdi.
The three-member tribunal headed by Justice M. M. Odinya, on Wednesday, fixed the date after listening to arguments from counsel.
The Attorney-General of Benue, Mr Fidelis Mnyim, told the tribunal that Section 83 (1) and (2) of the Benue Electoral Law and Section 36 of the 1999 of Nigeria constitution empowered the justices of the tribunal to decide the venue at which a tribunal would sit to hear the petitions.
Mnyim argued that for the tribunal to have relocated to Abuja, the law required that the consent of the parties involved must be sought.
According to him, consent of parties is a pre-condition, but this consent had not been granted by us for the tribunal to relocate from Benue to Abuja.
“It is not mentioned anywhere in the law or constitution that the Chief Judge can move the venue of the tribunal to any place.
“From our correspondences, that movement the tribunal from Makurdi to Abuja did not emanate from the tribunal and so we submit that this sitting in Abuja is a nullity and we pray my lords to so hold,’’ he said.
In his submission, the counsel to Okpokwu LGA of Zone C, Mr Victor Johnson, said that his client was opposed to the relocation of the tribunal to Abuja.
“We also want to put it on record that the consent of the parties I represent was not sought before the relocation and we do not give our consent for today’s sitting outside the courtroom in Benue,” he said.
According to him, it will be in the best interest of the tribunal to hurriedly move back to Benue to hear and determine the petition to meet up with the 180 days stipulated by law for hearing such petitions.
“Things are not done outside the law, the law guides and gives direction, the law established the tribunal, and the same law says they should sit in a court room.
“If you can no longer sit in a courtroom you must seek consent of all the parties to sit outside and no consent was sought from my clients.
“If you now sit in Abuja and at the end of the day you get a judgment, it can be upturned on appeal ground, because there should not be any sitting outside a courtroom,” Johnson said.
In his submission, Mr David Iorhemba, representing the petitioners, said that the relocation to Abuja from Benue had become necessary because of security threats.
“We are comfortable sitting in Abuja because of the unruly nature, hooliganism and banditry nature in which judges could be attacked in Benue.
“My car was one time smashed and it became so unstable that the chief judge in his wisdom considered relocating the tribunal to sit in Abuja being a neutral venue and well secured for the parties involved,” he said.
NAN reports that the APC had secured an order of a Federal Capital Territory High Court, Abuja Judicial Division, for the relocation of the Benue Local Government Election Petition Tribunal and Appeal Tribunal to Abuja.
The decision was made due to security concerns in Benue.
Similarly, permission was granted to the Local Government Appeal Tribunal on the disputed election to continue conducting proceedings at the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) House in Abuja. (NAN)
